16/08/2008 – 17/08/2008 Dead Horse Gap – South Rams Head Range
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Participants: Stephen Davies (Leader, Photos), Emily Whitelaw (Report), Nick “Schnick” Whitelaw
We met at Steve’s at 1700 on Friday and began the long drive down. It seemed things were against our skiing this weekend. Some people had had to pull out of the trip due to injury and other commitments, and then things continued as the weekend progressed. Just before Canberra Steve pulled over because something felt funny. Sure enough we had a flat (caused by a nail), though luckily the spare was accessible and we managed a quick change. The rest of the drive to Jindy was uneventful, reaching Nuggets Crossing at 2330, just in time to get our skis, stocks and boots from Wilderness Sports ($60 for 2 days). We continued on the last leg of the drive out to Thredbo Diggings (Bullocks Flat) where we set up the tent and were asleep by 2330.
Day 1: Saturday 16/08/2008 Dead Horse Gap – South Rams Head Range return
Saturday the 16th we woke at 0630 to the sun breaking through the clouds for a fine day. After a quick breakfast and packup we left the campsite at 0815 and continued along the Alpine way. Just past Thredbo there was a road block with a ranger turning people around as a semi had had an accident just past Dead Horse Gap. We thought our weekend had been thwarted again but we convinced them to let us pass as we were parking before the accident. Soon we were unloaded from the car at the top carpark (06127, 59570 on Thredbo map) and Steve was instructing us on how to put skins on our skis. The glue has to be very sticky so they adhese properly, but when it gets stuck to your fingers in the icy air it isn’t the best feeling ripping it off.
We saddled up and climbed the ice bank on the northern side of the road before getting into our skis. Climbing hills with skins on requires you to keep the skis parallel and pointing directly uphill. I had some initial struggles with sliding backwards, but I eventually got the hang of it (bend knees, push off balls of feet and push your weight hard into the snow so the skins lock into the snow crystals).
Within an hour (at about 1000 hrs) of nice climbing through the trees up the spur we reached our base (06124, 59580) camp and set up the tent. We decided on a nearly lunch (1030) so we could get more skiing in and by 1115 we had set off again. Climbing was much easier without the packs as the skins stuck better. 500m from camp we found a great beginners slope, climbed to the top and practised our skiing all the way down through the pristine powder. I re-familiarised myself with the snow-plough after 5 years of snow-boarding – a little harder in boots where only the nose of the boot is fastened to the ski and even attempted some (very terrible) telemark turns. We’d only been skiing for ½ hr when Schnick tried skiing down a steep little slope. It looked pretty harmless, but knowing he’d stack I decided to video it. And…the classic face-plant at the bottom. I was laughing until Scnick said “I’m bleeding”and several more times, each increasing in panic, “Oh my God I’m bleeding!” By the time I reached him (I was only about 10 steps away), his face was awash with blood, pouring from a laceration on the back of his scalp where his ski has struck him. He wasn’t in pain, but it was a mess, staining heaps of the pristine snow red. While I encouraged the bleeding to stop, Steve skied back to camp to get first aid supplies. Schnick calmed down once the blood started to crustify on his face and then was happy to pose for photos of ‘The Aftermath’, he even felt OK to walk back down to camp.
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Once back I got a wet towel to clean the crusty blood of his face, but in his hair it had dried like concrete, and not wanting to hurt the cut any more by washing it he just stuck his beanie back on. Out of sight, out of mind.
Over a warm drink we considered our options. We wanted a professional to check his wound today, but he was feeling well enough to continue skiing. At 1400 we went back on the slopes again and tried several more runs before returning to camp at 1530. By 1600 camp was packed up again and we started on our way back down the spur to the car. Unfortunately, super-wide snow-ploughs don’t work very well on very steep slopes with a narrow path between the trees, so for half of the descent we were walking.
At the medical centre at Thredbo, it took more time for them to find the gash through his clotted hair than to suture him back up, all 12 mm of it. His head was dunked under the tap for a while to clean out the blood, then $144 later we were out of there.
We decided to stay at Ngarigo Camp, not far from Thredbo, so we set up our tent for the third time in 2 days and got on with dinner. We didn’t last long after dinner before we went to bed to keep warm.
Day 2: Sunday 17/08/2008 Dead Horse Gap – Rams Head Range return
Sunday morning we slept through until 0730, and then managed to cook our breakfast despite the frozen water (it was a balmy -7 degrees). We left the tent to dry and drove back out to Dead Horse Gap to finish what we’d started yesterday. We were on the snow by 1000 and found the climb up to the Rams Head Range much easier and quicker with only day packs. We continued on higher than we had gone yesterday, passed South Rams Head on its easier side and then skirted between Rams Head and North Rams Head. The weather was perfect – clear blue sky and very little wind – couldn’t have asked for better. The snow too was great, mostly untouched powder, though a little icy on the shaded side of the peaks. This season is the best covering we’ve had for the past four or so years. The few scarce boulders that were large enough to emerge from the cover had been transformed into giant, jagged mounds, windswept by ice and snow.
We stopped for lunch at 1245 on the northern side of Rams Head (06132, 59618 on Mount Kosciusko Map), with extensive views west to the Victorian Snow Ranges and also north towards Kosciusko and Townsend. Little did we know that at that very moment the fine weather that was keeping us warm was having disastrous consequences for others. Just the other side of Kosciusko a cornice at Blue Lake collapsed, killing a climber. Two other skiers died that weekend by hitting trees.
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We headed back at 1330 and found ourselves a great run on the eastern face of Rams Head. Here we spent about an hour just going up and down, carving up the slope.
The rest of the descent went fairly quickly. After getting more confidence on our turns, dodging trees and icy patches fazed us less. It was only about 100m from the car that, due to the lower altitude, the snow became icy and harder to do the light manoeuvres required. Here we walked, arriving back at the car by 1545, got into our comfy car clothes and headed back to Ngarigo Camp. The tent and everything was packed up in 10 mins, back in Jindy we returned our skis, grabbed a quick pie and began the long haul home.
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